Confronting the Ubiquitous C- word

                                          Confronting the Ubiquitous C- word

A recent centre page article in the Times of India confers a depressing and ignominious distinction on India for having the lowest rates of cancer survival. This is ironical considering the giant strides India has made in epidemiological studies.  India is home to world class orthopedic and cardiac surgeons and ranks among three top medical tourism destinations in Asia with an estimated 1,50,000 foreigners travelling to India for low cost and high quality healthcare  procedures every year. Despite the availability of the latest medical technologies and comparatively reduced medical expenses vis-à-vis the prohibitive costs in the developed countries, India,  as per the latest global statistics  lags far behind in cancer survival rate. The article details the steps needed to confront the C word that ails our nation.

 As for India the C word is applicable not only to the fatal cancer, but the deadly  word is equally applicable to all other aspects that we confront daily  in all walks of life. Cancer as a fatal disease accounts for the death of nearly 7 lakhs of men and women every year in the country. But cancer of the mind and soul afflicts the entire population that is estimated today at 1.27 billion(roughly 17.5% of the world population). To confront this ubiquitous C is far more challenging than confronting cancer disease because the cure for the former involves a combined and collaborative effort of all of us while the cure for the latter rests with the shared work of a restricted group of physicians and scientists. A lot of new medicines and therapies have already proved successful in the treatment of cancer and early detection is a vital key to cancer survival. There is a big list of cancers that affect almost every part of the body-the brain, the lungs, the uterine cervix, the breasts, the liver, the prostate, mouth, esophagu, skin and the glands. Though a few of them may be attributable to our genetic inheritance or to our indulgence in smoking, drinking, and other wrong life style habits, it is difficult to assign any single or multiple causes for the occurrence of cancer.  But the ubiquitous C is singularly attributable to human failings.

The ubiquitous cancer has many parallel or equivalence with the cancer illness. Brain cancer is among the deadly ones and the cause is unknown, though it is often noted that it is secondary as an offshoot of primary cancer somewhere else in the body. Treatment includes surgery, chemo and radiotherapy. But the equivalence of brain cancer in our daily life is the most virulent and infectious form of mental sickness that causes dismemberment of an entire community or nation. It spreads fast and is poisonous as it corrodes the mind and the heart of the people. The communal  fire stoked by the mindless concoction of phrases such as love-Jihad, Ghar wapsi(home coming after reconversion), “Patriot, thy name is Godse”  “Turn Hindu, become Indian” etc threaten to disunite the nation that had remained  strong and robust for the last 67 years as a multi-cultural, multi religious, pluralistic society.  This attempt at reconversion and inciting communal clashes is as lethal as what ISIS is currently doing in different parts of Africa and the Middle-East. Instead of killing non believers as ISIS does, the dastardly effort of mindless and semiliterate Hindus is killing the souls of believers in Islam and Christianity by brutalizing these minority groups, labelling them as seditious and saying that they cannot be Indians as  they are not Hindus.  “India is for Hindus and Hindus alone can be Indians” is an emotional slogan to influence the Hindu majority against all other religious minorities. This is the most pernicious spread of hatred against all those who profess faith in religions other than Hinduism.

Cancers of the breast, the cervix, and the private parts of the body have their equivalence in the sex crimes, sexual abuse and assault on women.  It is a shame that India is considered the rape nation of the world and its capital Delhi, the rape capital. This is the cancer that destroys the finer instincts of human feelings replacing it with beastly instincts and assaults female victims with physical violence and mental trauma. Cancer is a malignant growth caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division. It is this division of humanity into animality that has made it as the most heinous and reprehensible kind. The road rage  which has become an everyday affair is another example of the animal instincts that assault human sensibility causing danger to the life of its victim.

The skin cancer is rearing its equivalent ugly head in the form of racism. The spate of attacks on the northeast men and women in Delhi and Bengaluru, the attack on the African women in Delhi are symptomatic of the xenophobic prejudice that the brown skinned Indians are superior both to the dark skinned Africans and the chinky -eyed people from the northeast  which is truly a part of India.

Just as lymphoma or the malignant tumour in the lymph nodes spread fast to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system, the filth and dirt that swamp our nation spreads illesses and disease all around. We the people of India are the architects of refuse, garbage, pollution and sewage and we suffer from infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, diahorrea, gastroenteritis , asthma etc through all seasons of the year.  Corruption has been endemic among all sections of society and is a deadly killer of all ethical and moral principles that are basic to economic and social development.

Last but not the least is the oral cancer or the cancer of the mouth. The vile language that is used that defies all civil discourse in the country, the absence of polite debates, the lack of civilized behaviour and the noise and shouting that accompanies  all dialogues ,television debates and street brawls have destroyed  culture , polish and refinement that are the essence of  civilized living.How do we confront this ubiquitous C that has caused damage to our mind, intellect and emotions much more than Cancer the disease that limits itself to the physical body? What are the therapies we can practice to defeat the obnoxious C in our midst?  

We need Education- education that opens up our mind and sensitizes us to respect gender differences, to empathize with the emotional needs of others, to appreciate beauty and goodness, to recognize the oneness of humanity while accommodating diversity, heterogeneity and multi-formity.

Just as early detection raises the rate of cancer survival, “catch them young “is the phrase to spread education and awareness among the adolescents about drug and sexual abuse and about responsible behaviour and about our duty by the society and the nation. If the young are schooled in the use of civil language and polite conduct, it helps them to have a control over their negative emotions and behaviour. The idea of “swachh bharat”, the concept of nationalism for the promotion of multi- culturalism and syncretism, the development of taste for universal and timeless artistic value, the love for reading and enhancing one’s knowledge, the cultivation of ethics or principles of right conduct should begin at a time when the brain is in its formative stage and is in readiness to accept learning in all its diverse dimensions .

Cancer is the unnatural proliferation of cells that metastasize into dangerous –almost fatal condition but it can be arrested if the cell division is controlled. In a similar way the ubiquitous C can be arrested if human beings are not divided on the basis of religion, language, caste and colour. To understand and cultivate humanity may provide the key to challenge the pernicious spread of mental, intellectual,  racial, religious divisions and to restore the idea of India ,embodying unity in diversity, pluralism, democracy and compassion with malice towards none and empathy towards all. Let us all together confront the ubiquitous C, the colonizer of our thoughts and emotions with the same determination and commitment as our freedom fighters did to win against the mighty colonizers who had made us intellectually suspect, emotionally fearful and wholly servile to their imperialist power. Let us try to restore India to its original civilization which formed the base for all religions, cultures, languages, thoughts and beliefs where they retained their distinct identities and reverential respect for each other and stood as  a functioning example of all for one and one for all.